New Hope Network, the hosts of the Natural Products Expo, recently hosted Newtopia Now in Denver, a smaller, more focused event that's less than one tenth the size of Natural Products Expo West. 

By the numbers, Newtopia Now hosted 7,000 attendees vs the 85,000 who attended Natural Products Expo West this past March. 

The event and its 560 exhibitors (comprised of 180 new brands) were organized into 4 neighborhoods: 

Thrive: Featuring the newest food, consumer packaged goods, and other natural products

Glow: All things beauty and skincare

Represent: Showed off products with international/ethnic, diverse backgrounds 

Regenerate: A display of all things eco friendly, sustainable, and regenerative

Convention Highlights

Blue Zones Key Note

Many people in the world have heard about Okinawa’s long lifespans. Places like Okinawa that are home to high concentrations of citizens who live to age 100 without significant amounts of heart disease, diabetes or dementia have been labeled blue zones and studied for any environmental or lifestyle characteristics to see what we can learn. 

Dan Buettner, a National Geographic Journalist and host of Netflix’s Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones did a presentation covering all 5 of the world’s Blue Zones. Read our summary here. 

Regenerative Farming Presentation

Often, regenerative farming is discussed rather superficially, as a “being more natural.” so it was great to have a presentation on exactly how regenerative farming is defined and how it benefits the environment and our health. 

Why is that so important? Soil degradation from industrial farming means that many of our fruits and vegetables don’t provide the nutrition they used to. Take, for example, tomatoes which have decreased 55% in calcium, 25% in iron, and 17% in ascorbic acid (a type of vitamin C) since 1950.

Other cited benefits of regenerative farming include: restoring natural water cycles, increased water holding capacity, carbon capture, nutrient cycling, and the proliferation of microbe communities. 

Carla Hall

Carla Hall, who you might know from Top Chef, did a presentation on aging gracefully. The talk also raised awareness of how food tolerance can change over the course of one's life. 

Please check back for the latest on new products and other health news.